Yeddyurappa offers sweets to Advani (left) in New Delhi on his 82nd birthday on Sunday. (PTI)

New Delhi, Nov. 8: As he turned 82 today, L.K. Advani seemed to receive a foretaste of the role that awaits him after his impending retirement, when his intervention helped break the Karnataka deadlock.

Chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and dissident leader Janardhan Reddy smiled for the cameras this morning by the side of Sushma Swaraj, at whose home the deal had been reached.

It was a far cry from Yeddyurappa’s brimming eyes on TV yesterday, which earned scorn from Reddy who mock-seriously asked journalists what he could possibly do to wipe away the chief minister’s tears.

The truce came just at the right time for Advani after last night’s uncertainty threatened to spoil his birthday party. The BJP veteran unfailingly celebrates the day at his home with an A-list of invitees who include a few party colleagues, sympathisers from the Ram rath era, and friends.

Advani did help to sew up the Karnataka peace. He mollified a central leader close to him, who had stuck to a staunchly anti-Yeddyurappa line, with the promise of a steering role in Karnataka affairs.

Yeddyurappa agreed to drop confidante Shobha Karandlaje from his ministry and induct arch-enemy Jagadish Shettar, the current Speaker. He also agreed to review the transfers of officials from the Reddy turf of Bellary, but refused to lift the flood cess on truckers until the relief operations were over.

He stated his own terms too — that no other minister would be dropped and that the Speaker would be an MLA of his choice.

Sources said Advani insisted on both sides getting a fair deal, thus redeeming his credentials as a “neutral umpire” and not an anti-Yeddyurappa lobbyist. He made it plain that the chief minister would last his term and would not be put on a “good conduct notice” as the Reddys had demanded.

Sources said that once Advani stepped down as leader of the Lok Sabha Opposition, he would don just this sort of a mantle — that of the patriarch, a role Atal Bihari Vajpayee used to play before he became too ill. Advani would advise the party when asked, and not try to move or shape events.

The RSS has hinted that he would retire in February. Its chief, Mohanrao Bhagwat, was among the first to wish Advani today.

For the BJP, the question is: will it be a repeat of 2005 when Advani, forced out as BJP president after his Jinnah remarks, had struck out at the Sangh in his valedictory address at the Chennai national executive?

Insiders said Advani wanted to exit without fuss but was clear that he should be “consulted” on the selection of his successor, and perhaps even have the final say.

Many in the BJP think it’s a fair request. “After all, he built the party but stepped down in Vajpayee’s favour when the Sangh asked him to,” a source said.

Advani, sources claimed, wanted Sushma, his deputy in the Lok Sabha, to step into his shoes.

Outgoing party chief Rajnath Singh has conveyed to the Sangh he should not be passed over. “Not after the way he withstood his detractors’ machinations for the Sangh’s sake,” a source close to him said.